Last week Instagram released a new feature that allows you to publish a 1-minute preview of your IGTV video straight into your feed. I tested this new feature out on the Life Lapse Instagram page and saw 4x the engagement compared to our other IGTV videos.

I will definitely be using IGTV more because of this! And to streamline the process I created a crop guideline to overlay. I place this as a top layer while I’m editing my videos in Final Cut Pro because you know what? I exported my video MULTIPLE times and uploaded to IGTV, but the clips looked awkward in the 4x5 ratio in the 1-minute preview in the feed. Also, my video thumbnail/ cover photo was all wonky when cropped to 1x1 and ruined my Instagram grid. *GASP*

Publishing your IGTV videos will require strategic planning of shots while you’re editing that first 1 minute of your video. Overlaying the PNG file will allow you to see what the video will look like when the 1-minute preview is posted to the feed, so you don’t have to do what I did and upload 3+ times. Watch the video above to see how I edit with the IGTV crop guideline for my video + cover photo.

Grid Thumbnail (Cover Photo )

In the PNG crop guideline, there is also a “Grid Thumbnail” 1x1 ratio so you can plan your IGTV Cover photo. Just overlay the image in photoshop to help you plan your image. If you don’t upload the cover photo while you are uploading the IGTV, at the moment there is no way to go back and change this. I don’t foresee this coming any time soon either because the video has been on Instagram feeds for years now and you still can’t go back to change your video cover photo once you’ve posted it.

If you don’t upload a custom thumbnail to your IGTV, it will automatically select the first frame in your video

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